(15 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
North-West Province, South Africa – 15 January 2025
1. Forensic vehicles heading to collect the bodies of deceased miners
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Patrick Asaneng, North-West acting Provincial Commissioner Major General:
"As of Monday up to this point in time, a total of 324 extractions have been done. Out of the 324, 78 are human remains or corpses. And then 246 are people who are still alive, all those people have been processed, the corpses have been handed to the pathological services.
3. Patrick Asaneng, North-West acting Provincial Commissioner Major General, with a community leader
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Patrick Asaneng, North-West acting Provincial Commissioner Major General:
"What I also want to indicate since this operation started. Out of the 324 extractions done. 128 are confirmed as Mozambique citizens, 80 are from Lesotho, Zimbabweans 33, and South Africans is only five."
5. Asaneng speaking with a journalist
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Patrick Asaneng, North-West acting Provincial Commissioner Major General:
"There are no longer corpses or alive persons underground but despite what they are saying together in consultation with the mine rescue services we said we need to do a mop-up operation just to satisfy ourselves, and also to confirm what they have said to us. So we will still be on site until we have satisfied ourselves that indeed the operation has come to it’s logical conclusion."
7. Forensic vehicles leaving the mine shaft
STORYLINE:
Authorities said the police operation is close to ending at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, where 74 have died when police cut off food and water supplies to force illegal miners to come out.
Patrick Asaneng, Acting Commissioner Major General for North-West province, said "extractions" from the mine are complete, but authorities will still do a new underground sweep to ensure there is no one else inside the mine.
Assaseng informed that 246 people were found alive.
He said 128 of the survivors are Mozambique citizens, 80 from Lesotho, 33 Zimbabweans, and five South Africans.
Authorities launched an operation in November to force out the men who were mining illegally at the closed Buffelsfontein Gold Mine by cutting off their food and water supplies from the surface for a period of time.
Police say the miners can come out but are refusing for fear of being arrested.
A community-led rescue effort began bringing survivors and bodies out of the Buffelsfontein mine on Friday, while authorities started the official rescue and recovery effort on Monday using a cage lowered into the mine.
Authorities have also said no official rescue personnel will enter the mine because it is extremely dangerous.
Volunteers from the community who are familiar with the mine have been in the cage as it is dropped deep underground.
AP Video shot by Alfonso Nqunjana
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